Thursday, February 18, 2010

Dale Chihuly Inspired Sculpture

(Playing around with composition)

My Mini Modern Artists took a look at the work of Amercian glass sculptor, Dale Chihuly. His amazing installations can be seen around the world. Closest to our home is Fiori di Como in the lobby of the Bellagio Hotel in Las Vegas. Commissioned by Steve Wynn, it took over 100 architects, engineers, shippers, installers and glass blowers to create this 2,100 square foot installation with over 2000 pieces of glass. It's a spectacular piece that looks like a mass of dream-like flowers or sea creatures. Originally I had intended for each child to create their own design to take home. But I thought that collectively, they created a wonderful meandering composition more in the style of Chihuly. And as an added bonus, I get to keep it! Each child will get a mounted photo of their collaborative project.

I bought 8x10 sheets of Shrinky Dink paper (can you believe most of these children had never heard of them?!) I had them create a design with permanent markers, encouraging them to keep it simple and repetetive. Each sheet was put in the oven where it contorted to a unique shape. I randomly glue gunned the pieces together (managing to burn myself only once!) and threaded a small hole in the piece with fishing line and then a simple wire hook and hung it from my ceiling. It looks beautiful spinning slowly with all the interplay of colors, forms and shapes. I plan to do this project again on a smaller scale so each child can have their own mini Chihuly inspired sculpture.

With 2 oven racks and 2 large sheet pans I could do up to 4 8x10 sheets at a time. (The directions say to lay out a brown paper bag on the sheet pan before baking)I didn't want the shapes to shrink too much, so I watched them closely before I took them out.

Oh MY! I LOVE THESE! I might have to try this at some point with a class at the museum-if I can get it to work. If I do I will surely link to you! I work at the OKCMOA and we have the most comprehensive collection of Chihuly glass in the world. We try to plan lessons around our collections and exhibits. His work is amazing, but so is this project! Kudos!

Erin, thanks for letting me know about the Chilhuly collection at the OKCMOA. This could definitely be done on a smaller scale for the museum. It would look incredible with many small decorated pieces combined together.Thanks very much!Mary

I enjoyed this project too. I worked with Team Chihuly installing an exhibit at the Dayton Art Institute. I just wanted to add that I used an embossing heat tool to contort the shrinky dink material. I could get more control that way and the kids loved watching it happen right in front of their eyes. It was much easier to do them in the classroom this way.

I love love love this idea...so much so that i copied it with my children and blogged about it (giving you all of the credit of course, and linking back to your site ;) thanks for the cool project idea!http://thelittlethingsjournal.blogspot.com/2010/10/our-own-chihuly-sculpture.html

I also did this in my classroom of third graders. I cut the plastic in half and let the students each do two. A hole was punched in the corner of each piece before baking. A toaster oven was used so each student could watch as their sculpture took shape. Each classes sculpture was threaded on a thin wire. The plan was to hang each classes "string" of sculptures separate, but when I picked up seven classes of Shrinky Dink, they looked so beautiful all clumped together. One giant sculpture was hung with about 168 pieces, it was beautiful. I still have it and each student was able to take home the other sculpture they had created.

You don't actually need Shrinky Dink paper...you can also use plastic wine glasses from the Dollar stores and colour with permanent markers and then put them in your oven to melt....oven set around 300 degrees and watch them very carefully. Make sure you put aluminum foil on your cookie sheet, and then place the coloured plastic glasses, stem up...we have made jewellery like brooches and we plan to use these melted pieces of art for the centerpiece for beaded necklaces for Mother's day, too, this year...they turn out GORGEOUS and I do this with 3 and 4 year olds!JBB

I tried this with clear plastic cups and a heat gun. Each student added color first with permanent marker. The cups melted down into colorful discs. I then used a hole punch and string to hang. The clusters of colored plastic looks amazing. I'll try the shrinky dink sheets as well. Kids love this project! Thanks for sharing.

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About Mary

Thanks for stopping by MaryMaking! I'm a SCAD grad with a B.F.A. in Graphic Design. I've worked in advertising and as a fine artist. I decided to combine two of my biggest loves, art and kids, and began teaching private art classes. I Love helping children create beautiful artwork! This blog has been a great way to exchange ideas with other art educators and share student art.